Mark / IL

When I was setting up an HTTP server at work, I encountered a strange issue — a network appliance we have installed had an “HTTP monitor” feature. Being a COTS product, it wasn’t really good. The requests that it used were formed… strangely:

GET /\r\n

Lighttpd did not like this. I spent a couple of hours debugging the server setup, checking against other servers (which were running Apache, and thus worked fine), cursing and otherwise performing the usual debugging ritual.

The solution was to modify the idiotic request format to a proper one: GET / HTTP/1.0\r\n

Yay for mega-expensive yet mega-stupid “network appliances”.

The state of Israel, as most countries, has a Ministry of Communications. The man in charge of it, however, does not own a TV set, nor is he connected to the Internet.

Sounds strange? Not to the average Israeli.

Recently, the stupidity level in the Israeli govt. has risen beyond any reasonable limit: a law, almost unanimously passed by the Knesset, authorizes the Police to create a nation-wide database that will hold pretty much everything. As an added bonus, the law also authorizes the cops to receive information about a person’s communications — SMS messages, ISP logs, phone call records, etc.

Guess who’s exempt? Lawyers.

It seems that the assumption that Israel is immune to the paranoid legislation that has plagued the US lately is false — we’re catching up, fast.

Relevant links (Hebrew):

http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3483670,00.html — Initial report and details

http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3484032,00.html – Knesset members who voted for and against this idiocy.